Hello, I am Maranda Gordon and this is a continuation of a previous article, also titled “Journey to 25,000”. I am working towards a goal of listening to 25,000 minutes of music throughout the year. Every month I am publishing an article every month talking about the artists, albums, and songs I listened to throughout the month in hope of maybe helping people find some new music.

April.

This month I have two notable artists that I listened to. “Shayfer James” and “Sarah and the Safe Word”. On April 11, I went with a couple friends to the Marquis Theater to see these two. “Sarah and the Safe Word” is a great band, and was so fun to see live. As well as “Shayfer James”, who had an amazing set, and has such great talent.

I’ll start with “Shayfer James”. A singer-songwriter, and very talented pianist and composer. His music is a beautifully blended mix of pop, rock, classical, cabaret, and soul music. His songs and lyrics tell stories, often of love, loss, and of human nature. He has a discography of 3 albums, many EPs, and some singles, all of which feature many gorgeous songs. His most popular song is “For the Departed”, but currently my favorite song of his is “First Date” or “Tiny Gods”.

My second artist of the month is “Sarah and the Safe Word”, a six person cabaret rock band, although they don’t confine to that one genre. Their songs focus on storytelling and often address a certain human politic, as they are not scared to speak on what they care about. They have four albums, their newest, “The Book of Broken Glass”, released earlier this month. Their music is overall very enjoyable to listen to, and they quickly have become one of my favorite bands. Their most popular song is “You’re All Scotch, No Soda”, but my current favorites are “The Last Great Sweetheart of the Grand Electric Rodeo” and “Your Mouth is Only for Complimenting Our Dancers”.

My song of the month is “Sick on Seventh Street” by “Sarah and the Safe Word”. Although it isn’t my favorite “Sarah and the Safe Word” song, I listened to it a lot this month. It was the first song of theirs I ever listened to and it made me really like their music. They played it live and it reminded me of how much I like it.

To wrap this up, I hope you think about listening to one or both of these artists. I don’t think that words always correctly describe how good music is, so all I can say is that I hope people consider trying to find some new music.

To be continued next month.